Brexit Ten Years On: The Economy
Key takeaways
- Ahead of the ten year anniversary of the EU referendum on 23 June, UK in a Changing Europe experts have written a short series of blogs reflecting on some of the issues at the heart of Brexit then and now.
- It was a decision to move away from deep integration with the EU in exchange for greater domestic control over migration, regulation and trade policy.
- Nearly a decade after the referendum, the broad answer is now clearer.
Ahead of the ten year anniversary of the EU referendum on 23 June, UK in a Changing Europe experts have written a short series of blogs reflecting on some of the issues at the heart of Brexit then and now. Here, Jonathan Portes looks at the economic impact of Brexit.
Brexit was always an economic trade-off. It was a decision to move away from deep integration with the EU in exchange for greater domestic control over migration, regulation and trade policy. The question was never whether this would involve costs. It was how large those costs would be, how quickly they would appear, and whether the gains from autonomy would offset them.
Nearly a decade after the referendum, the broad answer is now clearer. Brexit has made the UK economy smaller than it otherwise would have been. The effect has not been a sudden collapse, but a gradual and cumulative drag on trade, investment and productivity.